Post #791772

2026-03-25 23:20 UTC

Calling all #typography historians for a vague question: Was moveable type of the renaissance to early modernity era generally sold independently to various presses (printers)? Or did the type usually circulate with its press (machine)? Were long-distance international sales common? I&#39;m trying to bring more context to an article on Cyrillic type but am stuck for the lack of information of who got the typefaces from who, and where. 🔁❤️ #history #historians #typehistory #printingpress

Replies (5)

@greenman@fosstodon.org 2026-03-26 04:21

@dobody@mastodon.design #Typography #typographie #imprimerie

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@chaprot@pouet.chapril.org 2026-03-26 07:10

@dobody@mastodon.design Poke @crideaukikuchi@social.sciences.re

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@dominika@typo.social 2026-03-26 08:16

@dobody@mastodon.design I can add an information about the Cyrillic fonts, around 1880, in Poland. I know that there was one man (Samuel Orgelbrand) who was probably buying typeface designs from Germany (eg. from Berthold). The only original designs he had in his printing house were Cyrillic typefaces. DM me if you’d like to know more

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@QuentinJuhel@post.lurk.org 2026-03-26 10:58

@dobody@mastodon.design maybe @kupfers@mastodon.social have an idea. But in France, I remember there was a very little typefaces trade. But I didn’t find my sources

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@aarbrk@mstdn.mx 2026-03-27 02:39

@dobody@mastodon.design I hesitate to generalize, but you can easily enough find foundries' type catalogs, which I would consider evidence of a marketplace for type independent of presses. It seems simple enough to assume that sellers of used presses would sometimes include type and this could be also borne out by advertisements. Whether a specific press bought their type separately seems harder to determine, unless you find evidence of such transactions.

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