Types of The Enlightenment?

fi4 Dec 2008

"The intellectual and philosophical developments of that age (and their impact in moral and social reform) aspired towards governmental consolidation, centralization and primacy of the nation-state, and greater rights for common people. There was also a strong attempt to supplant the authority of aristocracy and established churches in social and political life: forces that were viewed as reactionary, oppressive and superstitious."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment

Some ideas:

Baskerville
Caslon
Fleischmann
Fournier
Bell

Nick Shinn4 Dec 2008#

That all sounds very wonderful and radical, but in reality there wasn't a lot happening in Anglosphere typography during that era (and before), due to the repressive state monopoly on publishing exercised by the Company of Stationers in the UK. The enlightenment of typography really occurred in the early 19th century, when new commercial media opened the doors to new forms of type.

fi4 Dec 2008#

Do none of those types belong to the thrust of that age? Or do you just find them not very interesting/worthy?

So the ideals of that period didn't manifest in type until after the fact. That seems reasonable. Do any examples spring to mind?

Interested and seeking.

Captured from commoncrawl.org on 25 Apr 2015. original URL