CULTIVATED IMPRECISION
by Carlo Buffa

ANNOMILLE

Only now, in retrospect, have I gone back and given some thought to what the historical antecedents of the Annomille font were. Looking through my books and facsimiles of medieval manuscripts I was able to reconstruct my sequence of ideas and find the source of my inspiration, which I include, not simply to provide an intellectual justification for my work but to point out again (as though I really needed to) the distance that divides the large, freely written letters used in the colored headings found in manuscripts of the 11th or 12th century from a modern digital font, even one created with free use of the hand and eye.





ATypI ROMA
The shape of language

Italian Design Forum
Moderated by Sergio Polano

“Sancti Ieronimi in Pentatheucum Moysis”—Detail from a 12th century Bible in the library of the Seminario Vescovile, Padua.

“In principio creavit Deus celum et terram”—Detail from a manuscript of Flavius Josephus in the Laurentian library, Florence.

“Reverentissimo et sanctissimo fratri Leandro coepiscopo Gregorius serws servorum Dei”—Page from a 12th century manuscript of the letters of Gregory the Great in the Marciana library, Venice


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