Stylogeny combining Emblem Book × Renaissance Book Typography

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Style combination · Contrasts

Emblem Book × Renaissance Book Typography

Its parent shares the humanist roman and italic, the paper and the woodcut, but lets text carry the page with ornament at its edges; the emblem book puts a framed picture at the centre of every page and makes it part of the argument.

From the research on Emblem Book (Motto, Picture & Epigram)

Mix them and make something Emblem Book Renaissance Book Typography

NOTICEEmblem Book × Renaissance Book1531 · 1460
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Renaissance Book Typography, their arrangement from Emblem Book, the finish from Emblem Book. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

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What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Emblem Book (Motto, Picture & Epigram) Renaissance Book Typography

Type from Renaissance Book Typography
Colour from Emblem Book
Form from Renaissance Book Typography
Composition from Emblem Book
Surface from Emblem Book

02

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Renaissance Book Typography

Notice

EB Garamond; Renaissance Book Typography used Jenson's roman and Griffo's roman

Text · Renaissance Book Typography

The printed book as shaped by humanist Italy and France: roman and italic types modelled on humanist handwriting, a single justified text block set in harmonious proportions within generous margins, and woodcut initials, borders and printer's devices as the only ornament. Its page became the default model of the Western book for the next five centuries.

EB Garamond; Renaissance Book Typography used Jenson's roman and Griffo's roman

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The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Emblem Book, with a counter-accent from Renaissance Book Typography. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Emblem Book (Motto, Picture & Epigram) Renaissance Book Typography

  • #f2ead7 ground · 36%
  • #1a1714 ink · 14%
  • #8a6a45 accent · 18%
  • #b23a2b accent · 14%
  • #c9b48f accent · 10%
  • #b8973f accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f2ead7;
  --ink: #1a1714;
  --accent-1: #8a6a45;
  --accent-2: #b23a2b;
  --accent-3: #c9b48f;
  --accent-4: #b8973f;
  --font-display: "EB Garamond", serif;
  --font-text: "EB Garamond", serif;
}

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The two styles

An antique-style sepia illustration titled “QUIET ROOTS” shows a large tree with exposed roots surrounding a buried rock, flanked by two resting stags, with a river, bridge and town behind it. An elaborate architectural frame surrounds the scene, decorated with foliage, birds, a woman's face, urns and ribbon bows. 1531–1724 · Southern Europe, Central Europe, Western Europe Emblem Book (Motto, Picture & Epigram) A European book genre in which, from Chrestien Wechel's Paris edition of 1534 on, every page or opening repeats one fixed unit: a short motto, an allegorical picture and an explanatory verse, which only together yield a moral, amorous or religious meaning. It began with Andrea Alciato's Emblematum liber (Augsburg, 1531), whose emblems still ran on continuously, and moved from small framed woodcuts set in humanist roman and italic to engravings, from Bocchi's Bologna book of 1555 to the full-page copperplates of 17th-century Dutch, Flemish and Jesuit books. An aged cream book cover reads “THE GARDEN OF REASON” above a symmetrical illustration of a fruit-bearing tree flanked by two birds and flowering plants. Black leafy vines, rust-red flowers, and ochre leaves fill a rectangular ornamental border. c. 1460–1600 · Southern Europe, Western Europe, Central Europe Renaissance Book Typography The printed book as shaped by humanist Italy and France: roman and italic types modelled on humanist handwriting, a single justified text block set in harmonious proportions within generous margins, and woodcut initials, borders and printer's devices as the only ornament. Its page became the default model of the Western book for the next five centuries.

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More combinations

With Emblem Book

With Renaissance Book Typography

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